Amid Charlottesville row, America’s top soldier endorses generals’ anti-racism tweets

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford strongly endorses the statements by the leaders of the four major US military services, the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy, who spoke out against racism and extremism after last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

During a visit to Beijing, Dunford says: “I have seen the chiefs’ tweets and I can absolutely and unambiguously tell you that there is no place for racism and bigotry in the US military or in the United States as a whole.”

He said the “chiefs’ statements were important. They were speaking directly to the force and the American people.”

Dunford said the intent was “to the force, to make it clear that that kind of racism and bigotry is not going to stand inside the force. And to the American people, to remind them of the values for which we stand in the US military, which are reflective of what I believe to be the values of the United States.”

The tweets come amid ongoing criticism of the Trump White House for what critics say was US President Donald Trump’s equivocating in his condemnation of white supremacists who marched Friday and Saturday in Charlottesville.

— AP and Times of Israel staff